13/10/2015 21:56
Slovenia claim historic ticket to EuroVolley quarterfinals by routing Oranjes, Germany ease past Belgium to go for remake of opening match with Bulgaria
2015 CEV Volleyball European Championship - Men
Sofia, Bulgaria, October 13, 2015. Slovenia’s meteoric rise towards the continental Volleyball elite continued also on Tuesday as the side mentored by Italian Volleyball legend Andrea Giani stamped a speedy 3:0 victory (25-16, 25-19, 25-22) in their match with The Netherlands to book a historic qualification for the quarterfinals of the 2015 men’s EuroVolley and go for a remake of their Pool C game with Poland on Wednesday. Later in the evening, Germany had to survive a close and dramatic end of the second set but apart from that everything went just easy for the Baku 2015 European Games gold medallists who swept Belgium’s Red Dragons aside in three sets (25-16, 31-29, 25-17) to get the right to play hosts Bulgaria for a spot in the semis.
The Netherlands vs. Slovenia 0:3 (16-25, 19-25, 22-25)
The first set was competitive only through 10:10. Then Slovenia started scoring break points more and more often to open a gap that the Dutch could never close again. Andrea Giani’s squad showed a better performance on all fundamentals and when Dejan Vincic finished the set with a kill block, the gap was as wide as 25-16.
Slovenia took a speedy 8:4 lead at the beginning of the second set, but then the Oranjes fought back to catch up at 11:11 and even went upfront for a moment at 14:13. But the Slovenian attackers would not have it. They upped their spiking efforts to quickly regain the lead, but it was once again the block of Vincic that put the ball on the floor for the final 25-19.
The third set was by far the most disputed one. The Netherlands, taking more risk in serving and finally finding their way to successfully block the opponent’s spikers, maintained a slight lead through 13:12, but their errors also increased and Slovenia made sure to take advantage of that, reverse the lead and secure the shutout with a 25-22 final score in the third set.
Slovenia’s Klemen Cebulj and Mitja Gasparini were the best scorers of the match, each contributing 13 points to the victory. Substitute Niels Klapwijk’s eight points were sufficient for topping the chart on the Dutch side.
Gijs Jorna, libero of The Netherlands: “We are very, very disappointed. We played such a good group stage and we were so close to the quarterfinals. We prepared for this game seriously today. We knew that Slovenia is a great team and we knew that we needed to fight really hard to win this match. But today nothing went the way we wanted. This is a big loss for us.”
Yannick van Harskamp, captain of The Netherlands: “We were fantastic against Bulgaria; our performance was better than our level. We want always to play on the same level, but against Slovenia it was different. The game was without the fantastic Bulgarian fans, who made the atmosphere in the previous game. The Slovenes were tactically very well prepared. Andrea Giani did a great job. They played without any mistakes. It was an amazing European Championship, with perfect organisation. The hotel was very nice, near a park to walk around. Sofia is a very nice city - yesterday we had an opportunity to take a walk. Everything was just perfect; all we needed to think about was volleyball. It was amazing to play in Sofia. I was so happy to be in a pool with Bulgaria, everybody enjoy playing in front of 12,000 people. I played in front of so many people, but I never played in front of a crazy crowd like this. The Bulgarian fans were fantastic. It was an amazing feeling. I was hoping that we can win the playoff but I am going home with a good feeling – we played three good matches.”
Gido Vermeulen, head coach of The Netherlands: “Slovenia played very smoothly. They did not make any mistakes and we made many. Our players were really tired. So I tried to find a good balance in the team, but unfortunately I could not. We wanted to come back at several moments in the third set, but early in the first set we saw that my players had no power and energy to put the same performance on the court as they did against Bulgaria. We tried to change the situation with other players, but this also did not work. We are disappointed because we really wanted to play against Poland. Our goal was to play against the world champions at the quarterfinals.”
Jan Kozamernik, middle blocker of Slovenia: “It was a great match for us! We started playing well since the first point and I think that this was the key to our success. We played well on side-out. We served well and this was the most important thing today. I think that this was a good performance by us, but not the best. We made few mistakes and if in the future we play like we did today we will have troubles against Poland. In the quarterfinal against them it will be a fresh start for us. We will play without any pressure. It will be a good match. We look forward to this game and I hope we will win.”
Andrea Giani, head coach of Slovenia: “One of the most important things is the guys to be focused. Tonight we played well, but the difference between today and the group stage matches which we lost was that we played well from the first point. We showed good discipline. We showed technical elements. We executed our tactical plan too. Now it is time for the next step – the quarterfinal against Poland. Poland is a great team, but tomorrow we are going to move forward. This is important for us and our development. Tomorrow it will be very important to have good discipline and tough attitude. The match tomorrow will be different from the one in the pool stage.”
Belgium vs. Germany 0:3 (16-25, 29-31, 17-25)
Belgium won the first rally and this was the last time they were in the lead during the first set. With György Grozer on fire, especially from the serving line, the Germans were in complete control and cruised to a comfortable 25-16 win.
The Red Dragons managed to recover from the 0:4 deficit at the beginning of the second set and, with their blockers performing on a high level and Sam Deroo leading the offence, they were in the driving seat most of the time after the first technical time-out. After 24:22, however, they failed to convert the four set points they had before handing the wheel over to the opponents. Germany also went through four set points, but on the fourth one Vital Heynen’s squad put an end to this exciting set at 31-29.
The Belgians held up only for a few more rallies at the beginning of the third set before losing faith that they could upset the European Games champions. Germany reestablished its control on the court. Grozer kept scoring one point after another including the one that shaped up the final 25-17 and 3:0.
Sam Deroo and György Grozer scored 17 points each for Belgium and Germany, respectively, to top the charts of the match.
Belgium’s outside spiker Seppe Baetens said: “We definitely played our best match in Varna with Slovenia and maybe if we had performed at that same level tonight, we would have stood a better chance to beat Germany. We had a good tournament in the pool stage and we played a good second set tonight, but Germany is very strong and if you do not perform your best all the time, it is difficult to beat them.”
Belgium’s middle blocker Pieter Verhees commented: “I do not know how many set balls we could not cash at the end of the second set, we had so many chances and made so many stupid mistakes! If we had won the second set, the match would have developed in a different way, I am quite sure about that! The match went pretty much the same way as our opening game in the pool with Poland; we could not quite perform in the opening set, after that we started playing better and better but ended up losing the second one in overtime as well. It’s sad that we have to leave the tournament now, since I was really much looking forward to playing before 12,000 Bulgarian fans on Wednesday night; that would have been an experience! Unfortunately this won’t happen, as we have to pack our bags and go home.”
Dominique Baeyens, coach of Belgium: “I am very frustrated about the end of the second set. We know that Germany have the potential to be a better team than us, but in sports everything is circulating around the moments. And today we had our moments in the second set when Germany started to make more mistakes. So we were leading during the whole set and in the end we made some really frustrating errors. And maybe this is the difference between the really top European teams and the growing ones like ours. We made mistakes in really, really important moments. In the future we need to go up to a higher level where we do not make mistakes anymore. Now this is our main goal for the future.”
Lukas Kampa, setter of Germany: “I am happy that we managed to win in three sets to save some energy for tomorrow’s game against Bulgaria. We need that. The quarterfinal is coming really close and fast. I expected a tough match actually but we have focussed on our game today. We played well. We showed a good performance, in blocking and defence especially, and that is why we dominated in the game. Tomorrow it will be tough. We saw already that we play against a whole team, a whole arena, a whole city, a whole country maybe - I do not know. But we knew before that it was going to be like this, so we have to deal with it and show our best.”
Vital Heynen, coach of Germany: “We started very well. In the second set they had a chance to come back into the game, but did not do it. And in the third set we played very well again. This was a good performance for us against Belgium and we did not lose too much energy before tomorrow. I think that Bulgaria showed that they are better than us. Last time they were clearly better. Now we can find some solutions. Maybe we will be closer to them, maybe not. Last time they did not give us a chance. Now we will try to take our chance, but it will be hard in front of 12,300 people. But if we thought that we have no chance, it would be better not to come to the hall at all tomorrow.”
For more information on the 2015 CEV Volleyball European Championship - Men visit eurovolley2015.net or click here. In social media, please use the competition’s official hashtag #EuroVolleyM.
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